About Our Interdisciplinary Approach
The Bioengineering Group applies a three-phase interdisciplinary methodology to all of its projects to ensure their sustainability.Our distinguished staff of ecologists, earth scientists, engineers and landscape architecture professionals are organized into three branches that together apply the following generalized approach to each project:
- The Ecology Phase identifies the ecological constraints and opportunities for every project site within its regional context. Based on these findings, the clearly defined goals and objectives for the project are selected and agreed upon. On this foundation, public acceptance, environmental compliance, and most importantly ecological sustainability are readily established.
- The Earth Science Phase integrates stable landforms, healthy soils, and balanced hydrology by using applied earth science to guide design. Our conceptual design is based on these factors, and in particular verification that the earth science parameters chosen correctly match the ecological goals and objectives.
The Engineering / Design Phase ensures excellence in design and execution through sound engineering and landscape architectural practice, emphasizing green solutions that are at once economically affordable, constructible, and reliable. We pride ourselves on balancing innovation and rigor in the preparation of detailed plans and specifications, as well as construction cost estimates and schedules. By addressing ecology and earth science thoroughly prior to entering the engineering/design phase, our process achieves a streamlined yet rich interdisciplinary result.
Interdisciplinary Solutions
Our firm-wide QA/QC program incorporates and prioritizes our interdisciplinary process, and ensures it is efficiently tailored to match the needs of each project. In practice, our three-phase approach is more iterative than linear, but our team is trained and managed to use the approach consistently and effectively, and we put ecology first. We view each project as an opportunity to transact the repair and healing of numerous past impacts to our landscape-scale ecosystems.
Our approach begins with a collaborative determination of how a project site can remain or become ecologically productive in its own right and as part of a larger system even while serving the conventional objectives of the project. An investigation of the physical characteristics of the impacted project site, including analysis of landforms, soils, and hydrology, provides information about past and future sustainable conditions to inform and refine project goals and objectives and to support the process of site planning, low-impact development, and major infrastructure components.Our design professionals devise and employ technical solutions that foster ecological productivity on site and reflect regional considerations.
Instead of relying on sterile structural technologies, our treatments harness natural processes such as stream channel dynamics, native plant community productivity, and nutrient/contaminant removal mechanisms, often resulting in significant savings in site infrastructure and maintenance costs.
